#BandcampGold-Interrobang by Jargon Party

You could pour what I know about the Emo music movement into a thimble and have room left. What I do know and enjoy is surf rock from The Ventures to Surfer Blood. The new EP from Jargon Party, Interrobang, is Emo taken to the beach and lightyears different from the self-titled debut album.

Jargon Party is the vision of weird voiced Zach Lewis(the Rex Harrison of Jargon Party) and on that debut album he plays guitar, bass, and keyboard while holding down the vocals. It’s not a bad album at all somewhere between the thousands of tagged music genres its bandcamp promises it sounds like. Mr. Lewis fell into some luck when The Other Bones and Volcano Rabbit went to the history books and gave Jargon Party a strong guitarist (Eric Schnare) and bassist (Dustin Graham). The additional manpower allowed Lewis to kick into a different pace. The universe of Interrobang is a thousand times larger than the one he built by himself (no shots at the first album it’s really nice, check it out here https://jargonparty.bandcamp.com/album/jargon-party ).

This Jargon Party release has an incredible sense of movement. Far too often rock songs are static; within the first few seconds the beat is laid down the riff is pronounced and that is that. For the next five or six minutes you listen to the sounds repeat themselves as if your all standing in an elevator listening to the floors ding by. From the very first song (Do You) on Lewis has a sense of adventure in his voice and the music behind him shifts and pauses lunging in again after him. Alright is a showcase for the mighty Jake Erskine who is a damn champion drumming his way from the back of the song to its forefront until you can hear the sweat flying from his head.

I think Surf Rock Anthem Number 7 is the song that is being put out there. For my ears it’s the least adventurous most straightforward of this four song set. That being said it’s still quite muscular with guitars blazing like old west six shooters in a gun fight. I’ll always find Halseywood to be the centerpiece of Interrobang; that’s the song where Zach hits his oddball cartoon character voice zenith and the vibe is so intoxicating that no matter where I am…I’m piling in the back of some crowded Jeep with giggling knuckleheads on the way to pleasantly waste our time.

These are four really big songs and I sincerely hope the band only gains sonic size from here. I think they know how different this stuff sounds and I can only hope they keep exploring the open space they’ve created.